Thursday, November 12, 2015

Musings: From Anti to Advocate

I recently received an email from a
North Shore Oahu woman, who wrote:

I've been reading your blog for a while
and today I read your "Seed of Doubt" article. It struck me
as being anti-GMO, but your recent writings seem to support GMO.

I'm pro GMO, or more specifically, pro
ALL Ag in a state where it seems we're losing the battle to try to
have DIVERSIFIED Ag. I grew up on Waialua Plantation on Oahu and am
trying to preserve our agrarian way of life. May be a losing battle.
We have many of same issues as North Shore, Kauai.

My question is this: Am I correct in my
assessment that you started out anti-GMO and have now become pro-GMO?
What changed your mind?

It seems an apt time to publicly
respond to her inquiry, since today I'm on the beautiful campus of
Cornell University, a visit that represents the culmination, in many
ways, of my transition from an anti to an advocate.

And by that I mean an advocate of
science-based decision-making, of giving farmers a choice, of
retaining access to every tool in the box to respond to the challenge
of feeding billions of people in a changing climate. For Hawaii
specifically, it means an advocate of agriculture Because despite all the idealism about feeding ourselves, the reality is this: the
seed companies are the core of ag in the Islands.

When I wrote “Seed of Doubt” in
April 2009, I thought I knew a lot about biotechology. I was proud to
be the first Hawaii writer to cover the topic in any depth, starting
with “Who Grows There?” — which included a cringe-worthy
(editor-selected) image of a tomato being injected with a syringe —
in Honolulu magazine. I thought the anti-GMO sources I quoted were
credible people with the best interests of the Islands at heart.

But in 2013, everything began to
change. Vandana Shiva and Andrew Kimbrell came to Kauai to call for
the expulsion of the seed companies, and I saw a large crowd of
mostly North Shore haoles transfixed by the revivalist rhetoric into
a stuporous state.

Councilman Gary Hooser introduced his
pesticide/GMO regulatory Bill 2491, telling me it didn't matter if
the bill was ever enforced, only that it passed.

As a beekeeper, I
participated in a tense panel discussion that was supposed to be
about the impacts on pollinators, but was clearly intended to be a
takedown of the seed companies. And I experienced my first pummeling
on social media when I demanded that panel organizer Jimmy Trujillo
honor his promise to other panelists not to videotape the event.

In the course of just a few short
months, I saw the social and political climate on Kauai dramatically
shift. Hooser had begun the year calling for a “million little fists” to start pounding, and people seemed only too happy to
oblige, disrupting meetings, shouting down state officials,
aggressively bullying non-believers on social media, stifling debate
and discussion through an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.

Over the years I'd attended hundreds of
meetings, on all the islands, and I'd never seen or experienced
anything like it. It felt like everything I'd ever read about the
brown shirts, the Red Guard. It felt creepy, and sinister, like the
birthing of a mob mentality, the kind of mindset that had led to
pogroms in Germany. It felt nothing like civility, nothing like
aloha.

Who are these people? I often wondered.
Some were new faces, newcomers; others were people I'd known for
years showing an intolerant, ignorant, self-righteous side.

I recall one Kauai County Council
meeting, where the red shirts — the anti-GMO advocates supporting
Bill 2491 — were on one side of the county building lawn and the
blue shirts — the seed company and ag workers who opposed the bill
— were on the other. I was absolutely stunned by my visceral
reaction to the scene. The red shirt side felt, frankly, repellent:
grasping, sanctimonious, unsmiling. The blue shirt side felt,
frankly, welcoming: warm, laughing, smiling. And yes, one side was
almost entirely white, and the other side almost entirely local.

But what really shifted me emotionally
was reading letters to the editor and listening to testimony that
portrayed the seed workers as uncaring monsters, defilers, people to
be avoided in grocery stores because they might be contaminating
others with poisons on their clothes. They were repeatedly
characterized as folks who had no aloha for their neighbors or the
aina, and either cared only for money, or were duped by their bosses.

It was shocking and deeply disturbing
to watch the primarily haole anti-GMO movement turn locals and
immigrants into The Other.

My heart went out to them. And once my
empathy was aroused, I began to question what I thought I knew about
biotechnology and the people who so vigorously opposed it. I began to
read and study. I also began to delve into the anti-GMO movement —
its funding, its MO, its players, its agenda.

As I learned more, I gained a greater
grasp of the complexity of the subject — scientifically,
politically and socially. I discovered the so-called good guys
weren't so noble as they pretended, and the so-called bad guys
weren't as evil as they 'd been portrayed.

Mostly, I began to understand that in
Hawaii, support for the seed companies doesn't mean blanket support
for Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF, DOW, DuPont Pioneer and all their
business practices all over the world. It means support for the
perpetuation of agriculture. Period.

The seed fields are keeping the
irrigation systems open, the ag workers employed, the land in
production. One day they may leave; one day Hawaii may grow more of
its own food. But until then, they're far and away the most
productive aspect of agriculture in the Islands, and despite all the
claims to the contrary, we've seen no evidence that their practices
are any more harmful than the other industries that support Hawaii's
economy.

I also learned that biotechnology isn't
just Monsanto and Roundup Ready soy and corn. There's a whole other
world in the public sector that is working to improve the
disease-resistance and productivity of small, indigenous crops that
are crucial to farmers in the developing world. Other public
researchers are striving to improve animal welfare, and reduce the
environmental impact of livestock and crop production.

I've met many of them, and I've
invariably found them to be good, caring, conscientious people who
are earnestly striving to make the world a better place. They're
typically bewildered by the antipathy that so often greets their work
— antipathy generated by those who either do not understand the
science, or are trying to distort it to achieve their own political
and social objectives.

Along the way, distraught and
distressed by what's happened — and is still happening — around
biotech in Hawaii, I heard about the Cornell Alliance for Science,
which was founded just last year. Funded with a $5.6 million grant
from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it's dedicated to
improving science communications, ensuring that farmers have access
to agricultural technology and depolarizing the biotech debate.

I reached out to its director, Sarah
Davidson Evanega, seeking tips on how to heal Hawaii. I found a
sympathetic ear in someone who had seen a similar steamroller smash
biotech in Thailand, leaving the populace polarized, confused, shaken
and afraid. Just like what happened in Hawaii.

For the last nine months I've been
doing communications contract work for the Alliance, which has
deepened my understanding of both the science and the movement that
opposes it. I've also gained an awareness of the international
implications of this struggle, and they're huge.

That awareness was heightened by my
interaction with the 25 Alliance for Science Global Fellows, most of
whom come from nations that are struggling to feed their populace.
Their stories of poverty, hunger, crop disease, subsistence farms and
the reality of food insecurity moved me, and caused me to ponder more
deeply the morality of an anti-GMO movement grounded in affluence and
privilege.

Two Fellows from the U.S. summarized my
own views when they said:

We're not just talking about American
consumers here that have plenty to eat. We're talking about people in
food insecure regions who have nothing to eat but a small handful of
rice every day.

Access to biotechnology is really a
social justice issue. It shouldn't be an issue of white people in
the west making public policy for other nations.

The Fellows are graduating from their
12-week course tonight, and I'm here to offer my congratulations and
support as they return home, armed with solid knowledge about
science, biotechnology and effective communications that will help
them guide and inform this ongoing debate.

One of them is Joni Kamiya Rose, the
Hawaii Farmers Daughter who was one of the first to raise her voice
in opposition to the anti-GMO movement in the Islands. She's a local
girl who saw her family farm escape ruin thanks to the papaya that
was genetically engineered at Cornell, by Big Islander Dennis
Gonsalves, to resist the devastation of the ringspot virus. As Joni
quips, “And it all started because I got mad.”

For me, it all started because I got mad and sad — about the fear-mongering, the celebration of ignorance,
the bullying, the rending of my community, the polarization that
still lingers.

But now, I'm neither mad nor sad, just excited about all the doors that have opened, the horizons that have broadened, simply because I was willing to open my mind and question some deeply-held, and ultimately false, beliefs. This process of reflection and correction feels good, and right — integral to being a thinking, caring being.

70 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Wow. Straight from the heart. Thank you. I've travelled a similar path though not as deep or involved. I use to respect Gary, JoAnn and Mason - but no more. To outright lie and mislead just blows my mind. I look to you and Ka Wae for my reality checks.

What were specific "outright lie's"? You @9:25 and others often refer to these outright lies but I have yet to see or hear of specific examples of a specific lie. Surely with all those hours of hearings they exist.

I recall Bynum and Hooser lying about the amount of pesticides used by the seed companies. When I first heard the figures I was all in favor of regulation at the local level. And the increased incidences of cancer, which was also b.s.

You can look at GMO the same way the prescription (sky rocket prices) drug industry has the right to CONTROL prices and SUPPLY just like how Hawaiian Airlines manipulates and over charges flights. It's called a MONOPOLY and the seed companies started this when their lobbyists were able to push for patents during the Regan Admin.

Look at the U.S. and other countries that are suffering from lack of food supplies and listen to the seed companies MANTRA of saving the worlds hungry with their products. Their motto is hypocritical at the very least.

Thanks Joan! I never went through an anti phase on the subject. Perhaps questioning the business practices of the big agri-companies, but never fundamentally questioning the technology. GMO is a tool, like any other tool it can be used to solve problems, or it can be abused. The near religious anti-GMO stance has evoked much the same reaction in me as I see in your writing. You just express the subject better in your writing.

you people sound exactly like the folks u seem to th7nk are against biotech traditional farming methods and heirloom seed preservation and regular good old fashioned hybridization along with smaller local farming business farmers markets and yes wait for it rooftop farming and hydroponics along with other newer energy efficient methods and alternatives like wind and solar and voltaic are the scientific wave of the future as well as better community planning to minimize urban sprawl and make farm to table the norm in developing countries will save trillions worldwide and allow better food sourcing options for developing nations to better feed their local populations such as soil amendments that are natural and companion plantings to eliminate pests big corporate ag and the big pharma that supports them will become extremely marginalized and in 50 years it will be pretty much obsolete also it was locals and Hawaiians that brought the first lawsuit on Kauai and the blueshirts who attended 2491 were given the day off with catered soda coffee sugary pastries white rice fatty salty meats and chicken white bread and potato salad the white mainland bosses provided them a football to play with and provided a high school football game mentality all white mainland bosses hid behind mainland and Oahu supervisors while mostly Oahu guys and some Filipino immigrants tried to pass th3mselvess off as born and raised pure Hawaiians while the other side were the face of todays Kauai with lots of people of all backgrounds wh8ose common bond is that they live here also you w3rite like religious convert or a cultist giving your testimonies i thought i had stumbled across a Mormon chu3rch blog or something being osessed is weird and hypocritical try not mentioning anything gmo related or writing about any of these ppl for one blog post you can do it Joan lol

The food sustainability issue originally hinged upon the anticipation of “peak oil”. I don’t hear anything about that these days as oil is cheap. And of course we have other sources of power that can be used to transport food to Hawaii if and when the oil runs out. But on the other hand, food sustainability seems to still be around as a problem that must be solved. In my mind, it’s not a problem. Why are we so desperate to grow our own food here anyway? Especially when gorgeous food grown in the millions of acres of mainland farmland is far cheaper and easy to transport here. I’d like to hear a conclusive argument for the dire necessity of growing food in Hawaii.

obviously u haven't lived here longer then 2 weeks your gorgeous mainland food has a very short shelf life and lacks freshness guess the kanaka maoli were super bummed they couldn't just order take out and had to eat that stuff they grew themselves and btw u r probably my winner for dumbest post content ever please fly back to the mainland i hear ignorance is contagious

Read about climate change and how those big mainland farms are at the mercy of Mother Nature.

A simple thing to do is look into a Filipinos yard that has small gardens and think about it on a wider scale on Kauai then add that all up and come up with an equation that will relate to why growing food locally is beneficial.

If you are unable to see past big farms then you lack critical thinking skills. Say NO to drugs or wasteful things on the Internet or TV and Edumacate urself.

"Some were new faces, newcomers; others were people I'd known for years showing an intolerant, ignorant, self-righteous side."Thank you Joan.There is a religious fervor to the Red Shirt Fistee brigade.Sanctimonious and high nose. Da Hoos has always been tolerably arrogant, but after he hit the big time with a mob he really took off. His greatest achievement was getting Jay Furfaro to kneel at his alter. This allowed dimwit Mason to insinuate himself as the deciding vote. Jay is still at the power base with his Pension Padding County job. Somewhere in the weird mix of the Mayor giving Jay a hundred thousand per year for life, Jay's obeisance to Da Hoos and why the Mayor appoints Jay to the cushy, do-nothing position, even tho Jay was responsible for costing the county big money and even bigger social disruption.Perhaps the Political Overlords are all acting. They will just take the citizen's money, look out for themselves and play footsies with each other as they discuss how to f*ck the local guy. And you are correct, Big Ag does take care of the hanawai ditches and much more. The political overlords have forgotten that our Agricultural past brought us all to Kauai. Forgotten that most of the road and water systems that we use today are all built by Ag. By Ag workers in the hot sun. Da Hoos, Jay and the Mayor, a real big Fistee Fest.

Yes, 5:30, growing food locally is indeed beneficial but when you have large urban populations someone has to feed them. Try educamate yourself to move past your romantic idealism and you'll learn that some of those struggling the most are smallholder farms in developing nations. Small farmers there and in the U.S. too are leaving the land in droves because they can't earn a living. Small can be great but it's no panacea in and of itself. We are not going to feed 9 billion with "yardens."

ya but the religious fervor on the gmo side is like jillion dollar kine epic and runs entirely on gas from hypocritical mouthpieces that have a kamikaze jihadist agenda against anyone that speaks out against gmos they will do anything to prove their loyalty to the industry including trying to ruin anyone who speaks out against gmos its a stalemate now lets move on much bigger issues then this heres one the traffic circle in lihue is so dumb well how dumb is it its so dumb even the poster that thinks growing food is stupid hates it

Bravo Joan. I have always admired you. I have not always agreed with you but "a person who can change their mind can change the world. A person who cannot change his mind cannot change anything. "(That is my own quote by the way)

Science based decision making will keep us from ruin. Ignorance and religion (the lack of science based decision making) will lead us to or keep us in ruin.

i beg to differ developing countries have geopolitical issues and poverty standing in the way of being sustainable and you as a beekeeper and yardner know that small farmers are leaving because large corporations are controlling the product from both ends of the chain only large wealthy landowners benefit and they usually treat workers badly also water rights in arid regions and the cost of transportation and the younger generations wanting work in the cities are the real reasons there is a war against small farmers well now they do not want to have anything to do with big ag that only cares about big landowners but in developing countries in war and strife the first thing to reemerge is the local small farmer there to feed the ppl when the big landowner loses hids land to polital unrest while gmo companies move on to whatever political regime is in power in order to get to the big landowners who can afford their products until gmo companies become truly philanthropic small farmers in developing countries will continue to be pushed out a true farmer advocate would not belittle growing your own food since the majority of farmers are sustained for personal use

the agricultural white mainland overlords need the water to flow during flooding the political local overlords u elected ie da fab four u are all complaining about in the meantime the Carmel California overlords are taking over by ruling the housing market the way i see it we are all in deep kim chee

6.31 Oh yes, every problem can be blamed on big corporations -- even your lack of punctuation. Smallholder farms in Africa are losing crops to corn, banana and cassava pests and diseases that have nothing to do with corporations.

4:28PM wrote:you people sound exactly like the folks u seem to th7nk are against biotech traditional farming methods and heirloom seed preservation and regular good old fashioned hybridization along with smaller local farming business farmers markets and yes wait for it rooftop farming and hydroponics along with other newer energy efficient methods and alternatives like wind and solar and voltaic are the scientific wave of the future as well as better community planning to minimize urban sprawl and make farm to table the norm in developing countries will save trillions worldwide and allow better food sourcing options for developing nations to better feed their local populations such as soil amendments that are natural and companion plantings to eliminate pests big corporate ag and the big pharma that supports them will become extremely marginalized and in 50 years it will be pretty much obsolete also it was locals and Hawaiians that brought the first lawsuit on Kauai and the blueshirts who attended 2491 were given the day off with catered soda coffee sugary pastries white rice fatty salty meats and chicken white bread and potato salad the white mainland bosses provided them a football to play with and provided a high school football game mentality all white mainland bosses hid behind mainland and Oahu supervisors while mostly Oahu guys and some Filipino immigrants tried to pass th3mselvess off as born and raised pure Hawaiians while the other side were the face of todays Kauai with lots of people of all backgrounds wh8ose common bond is that they live here also you w3rite like religious convert or a cultist giving your testimonies i thought i had stumbled across a Mormon chu3rch blog or something being osessed is weird and hypocritical try not mentioning anything gmo related or writing about any of these ppl for one blog post you can do it Joan lol

Joan - In the past you have often said you are (were) a supporter of Hawaiian sovereignty but I can't remember anything good you have specifically said about any sovereignty activist or leader since you conversion to unabashed public sector GMO-evangelist. Is their any Hawaiian sovereignty leader you think is doing a good job or are they all silly idealists? Looks like the environmental movement took you for one big ride. What makes you so sure that philanthropy fueled public sector GMO educators that are paying for your services has not hornswoggled you yet again?

Joan Conrow said...6.31 Oh yes, every problem can be blamed on big corporations -- even your lack of punctuation. Smallholder farms in Africa are losing crops to corn, banana and cassava pests and diseases that have nothing to do with corporations.

Excuse me but airlines are corporations spreading pests and diseases around the globe.

do you believe Joan that corporations that attempt to gain a monopoly on anything that is necessary such as food water housing or medicine are right and any that oppose them are wrong are you for greed or are you truly about feeding starving children in Africa get the greedy corporations out and the greedy political regimes may give way 4t9o stability so a family can grow its own food without being run out oh and include oil companies in that list as 1well as electronic product corporations that cause wars over metals and crude oils u defend corporations all you like they cause wars political unrest all over the world j8oqan surely you cannot deny that

Oh, and 7:33, you are writing (poorly) on a device made by a corporation that uses metals and other materials that cause war and it's connecting to this blog via a corporate-owned server powered by electricity derived from the crude oil you deplore so please get off your high horse because you're supporting those evil corps just like the rest of us.

So....no one has yet been able to offer a logical argument for the "food sustainability" other than it's nicer to have locally grown produce as it's fresher and has a longer shelf life. Sounds like you predict that Costco's going out of businesses next week with all their mainland food that keeps pouring out the doors in peoples boxes. I'm not talking about your preferences! I prefer lots of things that aren't necessary. I'm talking about necessity. Try read and discuss; not attack. Only those incapable of actually answering the question need to cry out things like dumbest comment. BTW - Born & raised here. My family arrived on ships with square sails.

I, too, share your mana'o very deeply. My kupuna have let me down by not truly listening to one another. I admire your courage to seek deeper meanings, I know how hard that was, It was for me too. I am ashamed to say how I feel to all of my activist ohana, they can be so cruel. Its so sad.

Mahalo for your aloha for all of us. This was one of the most honest things I have read in a long time.

Joan "And by that I mean an advocate of science-based decision-making" War for example has been an excellent science-based decision-making method of curbing human overpopulation, but we are proud to announce that mass media propaganda and fast food has reduced the lifespan of those born today to less than that of their parents for the first time in history. No place for ethics or morality in science.

drivel with punctuation is so much more fun to read word Nazis everywhere thank you if u can pull your head out of your own posterior for a nanosecond you might discover the fact that truth needs no punctuation while lies and manipulations are often wrapped in hypocritical perfectly formed sentences and Wagnerian emphatic proclamations punctuated with lots of exclamation points and quotation marks just squint your eyes and try to logically and with facts refute anything i have written oh wait crickets I thought so

we are proud to announce that mass media propaganda and fast food has reduced the lifespan of those born today to less than that of their parents for the first time in history. No place for ethics or morality in science.

12:55PM wrote:drivel with punctuation is so much more fun to read word Nazis everywhere thank you if u can pull your head out of your own posterior for a nanosecond you might discover the fact that truth needs no punctuation while lies and manipulations are often wrapped in hypocritical perfectly formed sentences and Wagnerian emphatic proclamations punctuated with lots of exclamation points and quotation marks just squint your eyes and try to logically and with facts refute anything i have written oh wait crickets I thought so

Wait...

so thought I crickets wait oh written have i anything refute facts with and logically to try and eyes your squint just marks quotation and points exclamation of lots with punctuated proclamations emphatic Wagnerian and sentences formed perfectly hypocritical in wrapped often are manipulations and lies while punctuation no needs truth that fact the discover might you nanosecond a for posterior own your of out head your pull can u if you thank everywhere Nazis word read to fun more much so is punctuation with drivel

Aside from Da Hoos, Bynum, Jay Furfaro, Mason and JoAnn's getting us into a legal mess. Aside from Da Hoos and Jay giving Bynum 300K, Da Hoos' continuous lying on the amount of herbicides, JoAnn's whining and the total inaction of the Council to "better the lives of Kauai citizens."How many potholes did you hit today? All it takes is a truck, some specialty filler and a shovel....pretty hard stuff to fathom.Mel et al.....fix the roads. At least do something. Name ONE thing that has been done....outside of pertneer doubling the Government budget, hiring hundreds extra County nabobs, raising auto fees, prop tax etc.Just fix some potholes.Even Da Hoos, brush with the law kiddo Dylan could get elected on a pure "I'll fix the potholes campaign"

"mass media propaganda and fast food has reduced the lifespan of those born today to less than that of their parents for the first time in history"

The message du jour: You've been living too long and consuming way more than your fair share of resources. Sit on the couch and chow down on chips and soda. Leave the house to grab a burger and fries. Then wait for the inevitable, which will come sooner for me than for my 96 year old grandma who ate Vienna sausage for decades.

So she can run her protect a criminal friend or relative right in cell block.

How did that work out with the Kapaa liquor store old Japanese man nearly killed by a POHAKU client or let's say Valenciano's HOPE I don't fuck up like he did in the Hilario murder trial. You dummies think you are untouchables.

Yeah when world news shows a terrorist attack on a country you all feel the need to speak like your brave, but every day on Kauai drug terrorists, rapists, child molesters, murderers, women beaters terrorizes the island and you fools do nothing. Don't think there's no correlation with the money that supplies these terrorists aren't coming from Kauai also.

You listening KIUC??? 100% renewable instead of 50% by 2020 you GREEDY SOB's.

World first commercial wave power station switched on in AustraliaPublished time: 18 Feb, 2015 15:20

The world’s first wave energy power station has been switched on after being connected successfully to Western Australia’s electricity grid. The station will provide electricity and desalinated water for Australia’s biggest naval base.

This is the first array of wave power generators to be connected to an electricity grid in Australia and worldwide,” said Ivor Frischknecht from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. “During the testing phase, the first 240kW peak capacity CETO 5 wave unit operated successfully for more than 2,000 hours.”

An opening ceremony was held on Wednesday in the presence of Minister for Industry and Science Ian Macfarlane and Australian Renewable Energy Agency representatives.

Developed by Carnegie Wave Energy, the project is based in Perth. The station will provide renewable electricity for Stirling, Australia's largest naval base on Garden Island.

The station consists of numerous buoys called Buoyant Actuators under the ocean surface, which create hydraulic pressure when they are moved by the waves. The pressure is then converted into electric power and transferred to its destination. The station consists of two units, with one more expected later. The total power capacity of the station will be three megawatts. The units have already provided enough energy to power the equivalent of between 1,500 to 2,000 households.

The fields that hug the Syrian border are being plowed; street kiosks sell vegetables, water and rice to Kurdish and Yazidi fighters and the few civilians who have dared come home. There is even a shisha café. this was a post from a hopeful CNN report a few weeks ago where were the big gmo companies with their so called life saving ag once again it is the small traditional farmers that saves the day corporations care only about lining their pockets and will pull out when instability in a region begins it will always be small farmers and local small mom and pops that will bring stability back to the world not corporations vive la france

When a person writes a comment with run on sentences and no punctuation it reminds me of trying to listen to a person who does all of the talking and none of the listening because their mind is all made up and will not accept any information contrary to their world view which essentially puts them in the same camp as a Tea Party Republican and totally misses the point of the post by the blog author which is that she had one view but was willing to listen to all of the evidence and judge it for herself and upon doing so her stance on the issue of biotechnology in agriculture changed and was thereupon vilified by the TPR doppelgangers.

Have any of those opposed to Big Ag come up with a business plan, or something, to illustrate how we can be self-sustainable? This is a serious question, and I'm only asking because there seem to be many out there who make claims that this can absolutely be done, and imply that it is so easy that they can't understand why we still rely on Big Ag. So, again I ask, is there a serious business plan available, or one in the works? If so, where could one view it? I am really curious to see how these "experts" plan to make Kauai self-sustainable, along with a timeline. Also, if they have ideas on how to solve the world food crisis, I would appreciate some of their insights on that as well. I'm sure this is coming across as sarcastic, but really, if someone has such a great plan for Kauai's food future, where is it? I think people would be a bit more supportive of that cause if there was something tangible.

since you obviously recently arrived on the mothership from being beamed up from under a rock somewhere the people of Kauai were supplying themselves just fine thanks as we had a very small population up until the 70s when hippies showed up and introduced pakalolo and gave everyone the munchies and a contact high then w a coupla hurricanes later everyone sold their souls for gmos and development then the californication started first we close our borders deport the californians and the snowbirds limit the amount of cars planes and boats per day to a more manageable level return county and state services back to the communities shut down the fast food joints close all tourist attractions that bock access to hunting get everyone the hell outta kalalau shut down the gmo lands amend the soil and allot whomever is left a half acre to an acre to grow food with daily shuttle service to yardens put every square inch in productions where soils are no good its hydroponics and fish and shrimp and algae farming with locally grown products that we have now double community kitchens and put an iron-tight moratorium on hot2els mansions and large structures that would strain the available water supply ag tourism will become the norm the strain on our island will lesson or keep increas88ing exponentially until no one can grow anything here and we will be one hundred p2ercent at the mercy of the outside world for everything supply gets cut we starve way i see it this plan makes sense but probably not to money-grabbing mainlanders who only understand business and money trump would be so proud

@6:43 from 3:53 - You obviously completely missed the point I was making, and did not understand the context of my comment. Perhaps its you who have been smoking too much pakalolo. I was born and raised here, my great-grandparents immigrated here to work the plantation fields, so, yeah....I didn't just arrive. I grew up around family members who raised livestock and grew produce for their immediate and extended families, but still needed to rely on outside sources for other things. Yes, we had tons of fruit trees and veggies from the garden, fish, crab, lobster from the ocean, wild game from the forest, occasionally got beef and chicken from family and friends who raised them, but we still went to Pay and Save, Foodland and Woolworth's when we had to. This is why I pose the question of whether or not these people who claim it is so easy for our island to be sustainable have any kind of realistic plan on the table. If not, it's time for them STFU. We weren't able to be self-sustainable back then when we were a "small population", and had more farmers, not to mention more aloha for one another, so I really don't see how in the present time and situation, we'll be able to achieve this goal. However, there are many "experts" that claim it's easy to do, so again, I ask, where is that business plan? 6:43, you seem to know exactly what is ailing our island now so I'll be looking forward to seeing your plan of action on how to resolve these issues. Unless you have a solution to the numerous problems you point out, don't sit around and talk shit.

I love this post and return to it often in case of further comments. I come from a farming heritage, and the idea that we'd waste money on unnecessary seeds and pesticides is ridiculous. Big time mahalo to all who tell the truth about farming!

J.Conrow. You keep on writing about Waimea Canyon School and stinkweed being the cause of students becoming sick. Explain why the students who were in Bldg. T, a two story bldg right above an acreage or more of stink weeds did not become sick at all. Two gym classes playing in the field were the students being affected. Get your story straight!! If you were not there, don't comment, it makes you seem totaly uninformed and not credible at all, and you're not. Go and talk to teachers involved, not just read a repor!!

Also, if it will better a community, why not malama someone who is trying their best to keep kids healthy. Maughee is that. She is very informed with pesticides and their effects so don't discredit her. What will she gain from doing what she's doing? No one is paying her to keep safe our keiki.

Also, your use of the Hawaiian language in your writings are not acceptable, the kauna behind many words are too strong for you to use. You need to stick to your English language so you won't be scrutinized and laughed at as a haole trying to be Kanaka to be accepted. Auwe!!

If Marghee -- not Maughee -- wants to keep kids safe she should work on real issues, not fear-mongering fake ones. If she's knowledgeable about pesticides, why not help educate them and their parents about the safe use at home, since there's where the only pesticide poisonings have taken place.

And I'd rather take the word of scientists who have actually studied an issue, with air sampling, etc., over teachers who are just going with their own assumptions and anecdotal evidence.

As for your comment about how Hawaiian is "too strong" for me to use, I'm still laughing. I'll write what I want, how I want.